St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-25

Harem or Sacred" The apartment is
harem, and the ladies who live in it are
harem for all but the lord and master.
He may enter at will, but generally an
nounces his coming beforehand so that
he may not run the risk of meeting fe-
male visitors who are probably the
wives of his friends. In Well-regulated
houses the husband intrudeS only at
fixed hours, perhaps for a short time
after midday prayer, and does not else
favor his harem till he retires to rest.
Home life, such as we understand it,
can scarcely be said to exist for the Mo-
hammedan. The man lives in and at
his work outside. and the woman among
ner slaves and friends in the harem.
The most interesting view of the home
life OF the harem is when it is consid-
cred as the cradle in which Eastern
manhood is reared. Schools of any kind
are few and meagerly patronized, and
boarding schools are unknown. A few
boys are sent to Paris, Constantinople
or Syria to be educated, but the ajOrity
grow up among slave girls and servants,
seeing great deal which they ought
not to see, and learning very little of
what they should. 1t is small wonder,
then, that the better moral quail
tiles, If any were ever Unborn,
are rapidly Obliterated, and the boy
grows up to the man saturated with
vice and effeminacy. The women occu-
pants of the harem are the wife or
wives and the female slaves. Perhaps
on no subject does greater miScOncep-
ton prevail than on this of harem Slav-
cry. The field, however, is too wide a
one to be touched on more than Incl
dentally.
THE NAME OF SLAVE
as applied to the Georgian or Gircassian
girl is miSnOmer. She occupies more
the position of friend, or at least of a
lady's companion. if she does not, as is
often the case, become an adopted
daughter of the house. She is we'll and
sometimes extensively dressed, and
shares the small amuSements of her
mistress at the theater, the moolid, or
the promenade. Now and then the lady
may fly i'll a passion, and sOundly box
the girls ears or pull out handful of
hair; but reconciliation soon takes
place, and is usually cemented with a
present of jeWelry or new dress.
The principal diversions of harem life
consist in the visits of friends and of a
perniciouS Gloss of travelling women,
who hawk about articles of dress and
gewgaWS from one house to another, re-
failing the latest gossip and scandal
with their wares, and assisting the
ladies to get in all manner of scrapeS.
Wise women who tell fortunes by cards
and incantationS are also in great de-
mand. and their Vaccinations are, as a
rule, believed in by the ladies with
much the same delightful and blind
confidence as given by farmers daught-
ers to the mysterious prophecies of the
GypSies. Now and then cOndign pun
ishment awaits these hags, as in the
case of the notorious Ayesha, who,
several years ago, was called for
one night, hustlet into a carriage
under pretenSe of visiting a great
harem, and has never since
been heard of. But, as rule, their sor-
ceries, evil eyes and charms are per-
fectly harmless. and when there is moth
ing better to do they are called in to be-
guile the heavy hours. Nor must the
men singers be left out in the catalogue
of delights of the harem-a delight,
nevertheless, which is but sparingly in
dulged in, and can only be enjoyed to
the full when
TIE HAREM'S LORD IS AWAY.
A notion seems generally prevalent
in Europe that if only the harem doors
were opened a rush for liberty would
the SympathieS wasted on the supposed
prisoners of the MOhammedan marriage
tie. In reality both men and women
consider their state far superior to that
Europeans. The man argues thus:
You are slave from the moment you
marry. You cannot go out to lunch
or dinner or to your friends without
taking your wife with you. You can
not even leave her alone for few hours
without giving an account of yourself.
Such state of things would be unbear-
able to me. / go where | like and she
goes where she likes. | pay my servants
to look after her, and | am sure that she
is not flirting with other men when am
not by her side. You are never sure of
this" etc. This is his line of argu-
ment.
The woman says: MY religion for
bids me to look upon other men than
my husband. If | changed my religion
perhaps | would like to mix up with
every fellow | came across. but as long
as | am MOhammedan | detest the
thought of it. | cover my face from the
sight of the world as your women cover
their bodies. AS to being watched and
guarded, it is compliment which shows
how much my husband cares for me. If
he were to leave me to do what | liked,
| should know he did not care for me
and should feel deeply insulted."
1t is difficult for the Western mind
fully to grasp the immense gulf be-
tween our ideas and theirs. Their rea-
soning is fallaciOus and almost ridicu-
lous from our standpoint, but it is good
enough from theirs. And, therefore, as
long as the Mohammedan religion lasts,
so long will the harem exist. And its ex-
istence is, On the whole, happy and
cOntented one, in spite of all the rea-
soning which may be brought to show
that it ought to be miserable. Centu-
ries of communion and contact with Eu-
ropeans may possibly change the ideas
born and cultivated in the harem, but
there is as yet no sign whatever of such
a change. Up to the present no ap-